Beautiful! Acuario, days before their opening in Stamford. Pic from Acurio’s FB page.

We can’t ever get enough of Port Chester, ya know? And, while there are always a ton of different restaurants to try, we can’t help but come back to some of the same spots like Acuario. You can find this upscale Peruvian restaurant a few buildings down (163 North Main Street) from Tarry Market, near the start of the downtown area.Continue reading →

Sure, we’ve said it like a million times, but we’ll say it again just in case you forgot: Latin food is our favorite. We can never get enough. So, when we had the chance to visit the recently opened Aji 10in Norwalk and talk with Executive Chef David Soto, we jumped on it.

What’s cool about Aji 10 is their menu is not just your typical Latin food. Nope, Chef Soto’s fresh spin is called Nikkei, which is a popular fusion of Peruvian and Japanese food. The reviews of this new approach to Latin food in Fairfield County have been quite positive, so we had high expectations for our dinner. Let’s get into it . . .

Now that we’ve got a few days off from work to celebrate the holidays, you might be thinking: what with h-e-double-hockey-sticks do I do with all this free time? Well, listen up here, we’ve got a great idea: visit The Rink at Harbor Point, located at 200 Commons Park South. You’ll see they have special hours going on from tomorrow until January 2 with pricing at very affordable prices (listed below).

Well, here we are, already at the end of 2014. Man, how time flies. But fret not friends, because the end of another year means another celebration of the best of the best in Fairfield County. That’s right, it’s time for the 4th Annual OmNomys! By now most of you know how this works, but for those of you new here, this is a list of the best that we’ve experienced in 2014… NOT necessarily the best EVER in Fairfield County. If your favorite spot or food didn’t make it on here, maybe it was on our list back in 2011, 2012, or 2013… and if not, let us know so we can check it out in 2015!

With not one, but two fireplaces, Cask Republic has a warm, rustic, and down-homey kind of vibe going on. It’s hard to think of a chill spot with more class. It’s the perfect place to meet up with friends, have some drinks (from which there are many to choose), and try out some great gastropub grub.

Sure, on the weekend of October 25 (12-10) & 26 (11-8) you could go to any ‘ole Halloween party and get some candy, chips, and if you’re lucky a cute little cupcake with a gummy worm on top… or you could go to the Westfield Mall in Meriden and hit up the Meriden Food Truck Fest where you can stuff your face with fantastic food from an estimated 40 food trucks. With both trucks AND treats, there’s no excuse not to go…

But OmNom, the best part of Halloween parties is we can dress up in slutty, errr, I mean scary, costumes!

Fret not our friends, the Meriden Food Truck Festival has you covered. They WANT you to come dressed in your best costume and they’ll have a professional photographer booth set up so you can show it off.

It’s no coincidence that Community Plates‘ annual fundraiser is called Food for All because that’s exactly their goal: food for all people. While we have written about them many times on our blog, we’ve done a few runs, we guest bartended at Bistro 7 in Wilton to help raise some vital funds, and also helped to organize a fundraiser at Coalhouse Pizzawith Gerard, the need to help out and eradicate hunger in Fairfield County and beyond still remains. That’s why they’ve organized the 2014 Food for All event, happening this year on 10/2 at the Darien Community Association.

Helping make things awesome this year at the VIP Reception featuring light bites and a cocktail party from 6-7 ($100 and includes the Main Event) is the always fabulous Marcia Selden Catering & Event Planning. Then, starting at 6:30 and going until 8:30, check out the Main Event ($50) that includes some of Fairfield County’s best and newest restaurants. Also, new this year, are killer cocktails from restaurants who embrace cocktails and house some amazing mixologists.

We hope you can make this great event that not only helps to make a huge difference in people’s lives, but is also a great time. When we went last year, we tried so many new restaurants, had a chance to meet up with fellow writters, and had some nice moments with the chefs and owners who were there supporting Community Plates. The goal this year is to raise at least $75,000…and, with the way people were so generous last year, we don’t think this will be a problem at all. If you’d like to learn more about Community Plates, please check out our original post, see the “About” section below, and visit them at the Westport Farmers’ Market on 8/28 from 10-2 pm. Also, feel free to send us any questions via e-mail.

Event Details:

Thursday, October 2, 2014

VIP Reception + Main Event: 6-7 PM, $100

Main Event: 6:30-8:30 PM, $50

Darien Community Association

274 Middlesex Rd, Darien, CT 06820

About Community Plates

Community Plates is committed to ending food insecurity in America. Recognizing the problem as a matter of logistics, not a lack of food, the organization established a volunteer-driven, technology fueled method for transferring surplus food to those in need. The simple process includes food donors (e.g., grocery stores, restaurants, caterers, bakeries and other food-service establishments), food runners (individuals who pick-up and deliver donated food) and receiving agencies (e.g., soup kitchens, pantries, etc.). Scheduling is made easy with the web and smartphone enabled Community Plates’ GoRescue technology powered by WhenToManage, which received the 2013 Computerworld Honors Program 21st Century Achievement Award for human services. Since Community Plates was founded in 2011, more than 700 volunteers have rescued food that equates to 4.9 million meals to date. Launched and headquartered in Fairfield County, CT, Community Plates also operates in New Haven, CT, Albuquerque, NM and Columbus, OH with plans to expand to four more markets in 2014. For more information or to get involved visit: http://communityplates.org.

With Fairfield County’s active food scene, it’s no problem trying a new restaurant whenever you want. But, sometimes you might want more than a meal out. Maybe you want to take those restaurant-quality dishes home with you to make whenever you want. Again, there are certainly many cooking classes that you can try out here in the 203, but many are simple meals or involve basic skills.

Some of the steps involved in making a great ceviche

So, we were very excited to learn about Karen Brownlow of Chop Shop Cooking. She loved cooking for friends and at parties so much that she decided to study cooking at The New York Restaurant School in Manhattan. Seeing her talent, they kept her on in their catering department and became one of their head chefs in charge of the many events that they cater. From there, she worked at Abigail Kirsch and even started her own catering company. As her life got busier and she wanted to spend more time with her family, she decided to stop catering, but…and here’s where Chop Shop came in…but, her friends convinced her to start cooking classes. And, so Chop Shop Cooking was born!

There are days when we want to go light, there are days when you might mix a little light with something heavier. Then again, there are days when you break out into a hardcore, primal, carnivorous rage and take down meaty dish after meaty dish.

So, Jose Perez did like any American, food (and fun)-loving person would do: he decided to open up a food truck: The Meat Truck to be exact. Their first launch was on July 4 weekend and they sold out of all their food on that day. If that’s any indiction of their future success, then we think they’ll do very nicely. While we haven’t had a chance to try the food yet, we did snag an interview with Jose to let you know more about what you can look forward to when The Meat Truck hits up Fairfield and New Haven Counties.

Let’s just put it out there now…we haven’t had the best of luck with celebrity chef restaurants over the past few years, with the exception of Gordon Ramsay’s Maze and Michael Psilakis’s Kefi both in NYC. More often than not we’ve had disappointing meals like our experience at the recently closed Primary Food & Drink by Graham Elliot and at Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in Las Vegas. We’ve found that a celebrity chef putting his or her stamp on a restaurant and menu doesn’t guarantee anything. So, you’ll have to forgive our skepticism when Aarón Sánchez made plans to open up Palomain the Harbor Point area of Stamford (where The Beer Garden used to be). Would Chef Sanchez, from Chopped and Cooking Channel’s Heat Seekers (with partner in crime Roger Mooking), be a rare exception?

Well, you better believe we wanted to find out ASAP. We just so happened to see an ambiguous announcement on Harbor Point’s Facebook page Saturday evening so we made a bee-line for Harbor Point to see if it was really open. To our delight it was a soft opening and we were lucky enough to get a table. SCORE! So, let’s get down to biz-natch…Continue reading →